ARLINGTON, Texas — BYU went into Saturday’s Big 12 football championship game hoping to prove to the country and the selection committee that it was deserving of an at-large bid in the College Football Playoff even if the Cougars couldn’t solve the Texas Tech riddle in Round II at AT&T Stadium.
Consider that mission an epic failure.
The Cougars fell flat on the big stage once again, similar to a month ago in Lubbock, and were steamrolled 34-7 by the No. 4 Red Raiders in front of a national television audience and 85,519 fans — the largest crowd to ever watch a conference championship game.
About the only thing the Cougars proved was that Texas Tech is a very good football team, a team that head coach Kalani Sitake said nearly a dozen times is the “best in the country” in his postgame news conference.
That remains to be seen, as Tech will get a top four seed in the CFP on Sunday and a first-round bye before taking on the best from the SEC and Big Ten, most likely.
“We can’t make a lot of mistakes like we did,” Sitake said, while noting that he “felt better” about Saturday’s 27-point loss than the 22-point setback in Lubbock because the Cougars met the moment physically this time around. They didn’t look nearly as overmatched, physically, as they did in Lubbock.
“It’s the second time this year against the best team in the country,” Sitake said. “… It just so happens that we had to play the best team in the country twice, and they created a lot of havoc, and we fought as much as we could. … so credit to them.”
The primary difference in the game was turnovers, as the Cougars gave the ball away four times Saturday after three giveaways in Lubbock. The second big difference was Texas Tech’s defense, which could make a case for being the best in the country.
After BYU drove 90 yards for a touchdown on its first possession with a healthy quarterback Bear Bachmeier looking spry, poised and confident, it looked as if the Cougars were going to throw a scare into teams such as Notre Dame and Miami that were sitting at home Saturday and hoping BYU would lose so the Big 12 would get only one team in the CFP.
Running back LJ Martin took a direct snap and ran up the middle to give BYU a 7-0 lead with 4:58 remaining in the first quarter, but Bachmeier sustained a lower left leg injury the play before and he was never the same.
That, and Texas Tech’s defense rose up and stopped messing around. With Bachmeier limping noticeably the remainder of the game, BYU put up just 110 yards the rest of the way. For 25,000 or so BYU fans in attendance, it got tough to watch.
Had Tech not sputtered in the red zone like it did four weeks ago, it could have hung a 50-burger on the Cougs (11-2), who are probably now headed to a bowl game instead of the CFP, either the Alamo Bowl or the Pop-Tarts Bowl.
Credit the BYU defense — although it failed to get a takeaway for the second straight game against the Red Raiders — for keeping it reasonably close until the fourth quarter, when the dam finally burst.
“We obviously have some more work to do, but I think playing the best team in the country twice will be will give us some good lessons to learn,” Sitake said.
Bachmeier finished the game — to the chagrin of some BYU fans online who wanted to see what a healthy backup could do, and see the ball thrown downfield a bit more — but it was obvious that his mobility was in question.
“He was banged up,” Sitake acknowledged. “When you have a lower leg injury, that causes issues for you to throw the ball, but that’s not an excuse.”
With his left leg heavily wrapped, Bachmeier looked reasonably mobile on BYU’s first possession of the second half, and the Cougars drove to the Tech 29 before the drive stalled. However, Will Ferrin missed the 46-yard field goal try, continuing a late-season fade for the senior.
BYU had to settled for the field goal attempt after reaching the Tech 30 because Bachmeier threw a couple incomplete passes — screens that were snuffed out by Tech’s ferocious front seven — and LJ Martin was stuffed on second down.
Martin finished with 76 yards and a touchdown on 19 carries and caught seven passes for 31 yards but also lost a fumble for the first time in his decorated BYU career.
Ferrin’s miss seemed to take the wind out of BYU’s sails. If Bachmeier’s injury was the biggest play of the game to that point, what happened the next time the Cougars got the ball gets runner-up honors.
With the Cougars facing a third and 4 from their 20, Bachmeier tried to force a throw to Carsen Ryan, but Tech linebacker Ben Roberts, the game’s Most Outstanding Player, baited Bachmeier and stepped in front of the pass for an easy interception.
Roberts had another pick later in the game when the Cougars were desperate.
“The one-handed snag and those things, they made some amazing plays,” Sitake said. “They have a great defense, and their offense was efficient.”
Two plays after Roberts’ first pick, Cameron Dickey made a couple BYU defenders miss on an 11-yard touchdown run, and the rout was on.
The Cougars sacked Tech quarterback Behren Morton twice and forced him into some weak throws that could have been picked off, but generally the junior managed the game well and got the ball into the hands of his best players.
Morton completed 20 of 33 passes for 215 yards and two touchdowns — Coy Eakin got away with a push-off on BYU corner Evan Johnson on Tech’s first touchdown — and J’Koby Williams picked up 80 yards on 15 carries against a BYU defense that played admirably but simply wore down because the offense could not sustain drives.
In addition to the four turnovers, the Cougars also misfired on a fake punt attempt in the first half, handing the Red Raiders the ball at their own 41.
Tech ended up missing a field goal, but the fake was a sign that the Cougars were perhaps a little too desperate.
“That was going to be a good play,” Sitake said of the incomplete pass from punter Sam Vander Haar. “Give credit to them. They had one player that sniffed it out.”
Indeed, the Cougars needed to play almost flawlessly to beat the once-defeated Red Raiders, and they fell miserably short of that mark.
“That’s the best defense I’ve ever gone against, and to be able to play them twice is honestly an honor,” said BYU receiver Parker Kingston, who caught four passes for 44 yards, including a 21-yard reception that was BYU’s second-longest play of the game.
The longest was a 22-yard reception by Ryan on a ball thrown by Kingston. Meanwhile, Texas Tech put up just 374 yards but was 8 of 19 on third down.
BYU safety Tanner Wall dislodged the football after one particular long-gainer, but the ball popped into the hands of another Red Raider for more yards.
It was that kind of day for the Cougars.
“If not the best, that’s one of the top three teams in the country,” Wall said. “We had to play them twice. We didn’t play our best either time that we played them.
“Offensively, they capitalized very well in the way that they got big plays from the momentum of their defense. … They had seven-ish short fields today, so when you’re in that position as a defense, you got to just fight and claw and try to keep points off the board, which we were trying to do, but that’s an exceptional, exceptional team.”
As opportunistic as Tech’s defense was in the second half against a hobbling Bachmeier and a punchless attack, the Cougars had chances to get turnovers in the first half but couldn’t capitalize, couldn’t make the plays it takes to knock off a top four team.
Safety Faletau Satuala had a chance for a pick-six on Tech’s first drive, while Logan Lutui had one on the second drive. Linebacker Jack Kelly also had a chance for a pick after Keanu Tanuvasa deflected a pass near the line of scrimmage.
Senior receiver Chase Roberts had a nice catch on BYU’s first possession, but was mostly silent the rest of the way. That after saying the last time these teams played that they would meet again in the CCG and that the Cougars would prevail. Boy, was he wrong.
“I’m not going to complain and say (he was still nursing a bum hamstring),” Roberts said. “Yeah, I was battling a hamstring injury. We all were (battling something). .. Bear was playing on one leg, basically.”
BYU had won 14 straight games when leading after the first quarter, but the offense totally dried up after Bachmeier got hurt. Texas Tech outgained BYU 228-114 in the first half, and probably should have had a much bigger lead than 13-7.
In the second half, coach Joey McGuire’s team was far more efficient, proving that it can not only handle BYU, but maybe any team in the country.
Time will tell.
“They just squeeze it out of you,” Sitake said. “That’s what championship teams do.”